This invention relates to a special receptacle, and more particularly, a receptacle designed for displaying glassware, such as generally cylindrical tumblers, in a retail establishment and for transporting the tumblers from one location to another in a safe and secure manner.
Various types of carriers have been produced for carrying objects such as tumblers or the like, and in most cases these carriers are closed to better protect the product.
One such carrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,598,302 to William W. Nowak issued Aug. 10, 1971. This patent is directed to a carrier for objects of this type which comprised an open-ended sleeve designed to hold the product in position so that it could be displayed. The product was held in place by locking panels hinged to the top and bottom edges of the sleeve and folded inwardly toward the center of the sleeve. These locking panels were provided with elliptical openings therein to snugly fit about the wall of the generally cylindrical objects. This provided a means of engaging the opposite ends of the objects to hold them contained within the sleeve. The locking panels were held in place by a central strut which engaged the inclined panels and held them from unfolding. Once assembled, however, the sleeve could not be knocked down or collapsed for storage, shipment, or reuse, thereby requiring assembly directly from a blank at the point of use, which is expensive, time-consuming, and extremely inconvenient.
Of almost identical construction is the carrier of U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,580, issued Dec. 17, 1974, to Russell J. Hennessey, except additional locking tabs are formed in the top panel of the sleeve for holding the walls of the glassware against movement in the carrier. These tabs contact the interior wall of each glass supported by the carrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,888, issued Jan. 13, 1976, to Wesley S. Fogel relates to a carrier of the same general type but is provided with pressure applying panels to rigidify the retained glassware. As with U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,598,302 and 3,854,580, the carrier, once assembled, cannot be collapsed to a substantially flat state.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,721, issued July 26, 1977, to Joseph F. Schillinger overcame one of the problems of the prior art by providing a carrier with a center wall collapsible within the interior of the receptacle after assembly of the blank so as to enable the receptacle sides, top, and bottom, to pivot relative to each other and assume a substantially flat state for transportation and storage until needed to supply a plurality of partial elliptical openings for retaining glassware items between the top and bottom center walls. The center wall is locked in its upright condition by tabs integral with a panel comprising a portion of each central wall. Each tab is received through a correspondingly located and aligned slot in a second panel comprising a portion of the center wall. When desired, the receptacle can be collapsed for convenient storage and future use by merely removing the tabs from the elongated slots and pivoting the top and bottom panels and the side panels about their related score lines to a substantially flat condition.
Although enabling the container to be collapsed for storage and shipment, the use of tabs inserted in associated slots for a locking mechanism has not proved entirely satisfactory inasmuch as the desired rigidity of the container is not achieved. A loose fit of the tabs in their associated slots allows relative movement between the parts.